I thought about that for a few days. The answer is yes, sort-of. I didn't know it at the time but that's he way it worked out.

I made a choice to send my stories to anthologies and journals starting in 2008 and '09. By the last half of 2010, I had a big trunk full of stories. However, there were six stories waiting for a decision at various publications that eventually were abandoned. Too many editors simply do not answer if they don't want a story and leave the writer hanging for six months to a year. I easily had another six stories that were accepted by online ezines and then the ezine never published again. In some cases, the editor got tired and quit without warning or the website got too expensive or they just didn't care anymore. I still have two stories in that category. It's tough as a writer when the editor and publisher says "give me $$ donations or I can't continue"...

I still have two stories in the situation of having been accepted and then the webiste dies away. The editors have quit or gone inactive, and just don't correspond.

So in the last months of 2010, I looked for a publisher that used contracts and committed to publishing a story by a date certain in that contract. After that date, the writer legally can withdraw and send the story elsewhere. Now I don't get disturbed at rejections. "That's not for my journal" is an OK rejection for me. BUT, not communicating even that thought is impolite and wrong.

Once I made that decision and searched for a publisher with contracts and guarantees, (the publisher is obvious if you go read my website's Publications page) I unloaded my trunk stories, tweaked the stories into whatever themes they needed and went full speed ahead gangbusters.

That was over 50 stories ago and about seventeen editors ago. I enjoy my stories and writing the characters in them. This burst of stories will give me a base to continue.

THE NEW FRANKENSTEIN is a story that I am marketing more extensively than others.